It began with a customer complaint to St. Louis TV station KMOV: customers accused one local Jiffy Lube franchisee of a disturbing scam on the part of the store’s staff. Customers claimed that mechanics sold services to customers, then didn’t actually perform the repairs that they sold. Worse: one customer claims that employees asked for cash, claiming that the shop computers were down. Of course, they still didn’t perform the repairs.

This left customers with no recourse and no receipt. “I felt like somebody was stealing my money and I didn’t know who it was,” he told KMOV. When a reporter visited the shop where these alleged misdeeds took place, the manager didn’t want to speak to him, which is no surprise.

After that story aired on Tuesday, a former employee of the same shop came forward, who the shop kept anonymous for obvious reasons. “We were out there doing transmission flushes or saying that we were,” the mechanic claims, “it actually wasn’t happening behind [closed] doors because customers [weren’t] paying attention to the work getting done.” Well, no, if customers knew enough to do that, they would do their own transmission flushes at home.

“We take all allegations regarding technician performance at our Jiffy Lube franchise service centers seriously and are working with the local franchisee to conduct a thorough investigation,” Jiffy Lube said in a statement to the station. The franchisee also said that collecting cash for work never performed is against their policies, and promised to investigate and “take action.”

Of course, this is nothing unique to this franchisee: accusations of selling services and then not providing them to customers have followed the chain all over the country. Mechanics and managers pocketing the cash just make this scheme extra-special.

Former Jiffy Lube employee: Several local locations ripped off customers [KMOV]
Customers: Local Jiffy Lube location is defrauding customers [KMOV]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.